Because Growth Isn’t About Adding More - It’s About Releasing What No Longer Serves You
As we step into 2026, many people are focused on new goals, plans, and opportunities. But before we add anything new, there is a more important question to ask:
What needs to be removed?
In our experience building Here2Serve, through the wins, delays, missteps, and lessons, we’ve learned that success is often blocked not by a lack of talent or opportunity but by internal patterns that quietly shape our decisions. If left unchecked, these patterns don’t just affect individuals; they also affect teams, businesses, relationships, and outcomes.
Here are five areas that, if addressed honestly, can change everything.
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: Where It Starts & Why It Lingers
Stinkin’ thinkin’ doesn’t appear overnight. It is learned, reinforced, and often inherited through experiences. It can stem from past failures that were never processed, from environments where criticism outweighed encouragement. It can stem from rejection or betrayal that shaped self-perception, or from repeated disappointment that turned into expectation.
Over time, these experiences create internal narratives:
- “I’m not good at this.”
- “People always let me down.”
- “Why bother trying?”
- “This never works out anyway.”
The danger of stinkin’ thinkin’ is that it disguises itself as realism, but it’s not realism’s fear wearing a logic hat.
How to Identify Stinkin’ Thinkin’
How to Get Rid of It
You cannot remove what you refuse to confront. Start by: Naming the thought, tracing its source, asking whether it’s based on truth or past pain, and replacing assumptions with information.
At Here2Serve, we’ve learned that mindset affects execution. A team member who believes “I’m going to mess this up” will hesitate. Hesitation disrupts flow. Disrupted flow affects the entire event.
Stinkin’ thinkin’ doesn’t just live in the mind; it shows up in performance.
Procrastination: Fear in Disguise
Procrastination is rarely about laziness; more often, it is about fear. Fear of getting it wrong, being exposed, being held accountable, being committed, and failing publicly.
Commitment requires courage. Once you commit, you can no longer hide behind “I’ll get to it.” Failure is another root cause: some people delay because it feels final, but in reality, it is feedback.
How Procrastination Shows Up
Waiting for perfect conditions. Overplanning instead of acting. Saying “soon” instead of “now.” Staying busy but avoiding the real task and putting off decisions until they become emergencies.
How to Overcome It
Break the task down into the smallest actionable step. Commit publicly or to a timeline. Accept that clarity often comes after action. Reframe failure as learning.
In event staffing, procrastination manifests as late confirmations, unprepared staff, last-minute scrambling, and avoidable stress. Preparation is not optional; it’s protection.
Clutter: More Than What You See
Clutter exists in layers: physical, mental, emotional, and scheduling. Clutter is anything that distracts your focus, competes for attention, drains energy, or delays action.
How to Identify Clutter
Ask yourself: What do I keep moving around instead of dealing with? What captures my attention but gives me nothing in return? What do I avoid because it feels overwhelming?
Clutter creates noise. Noise creates confusion. Confusion leads to inaction.
Ask yourself: What do I keep moving around instead of dealing with? What captures my attention but gives me nothing in return? What do I avoid because it feels overwhelming?
Clutter creates noise. Noise creates confusion. Confusion leads to inaction.
When to Take Action
If something repeatedly gets in the way, slows you down, causes stress, and keeps resurfacing, it’s time to address it.
How Often to Declutter
- Small weekly resets
- Monthly deep reviews
- Quarterly life audits
At Here2Serve, clutter-free systems allow us to serve with excellence. When systems are clean, teams are confident. When teams are optimistic, guests feel it.
Lack of Planning: When Chaos Becomes the Norm
A lack of planning doesn’t just cause inconvenience; it also causes disappointment. Without planning, things are forgotten, people are rushed, anxiety rises, mistakes multiply, and expectations aren’t met. Last-minute action creates urgency where none should exist.
Here’s the truth: Your lack of planning should not become someone else’s emergency. When things fall apart, the disappointment isn’t just external; it turns inward, affecting you and others, and eroding confidence.
At Here2Serve, planning is respected for the client, the team, the event, and the moment.
Start today. Planning is not control, it’s care.
Unresolved Baggage: Releasing the Past to Lead Forward
Unforgiveness rarely announces itself loudly. In leadership and business, it often shows up quietly as hesitation, distrust, rigidity, or overcorrection.
It can stem from past disappointments, failed partnerships, hiring decisions that didn’t work out, missed expectations, or even personal choices we wish we had made differently. When those experiences are not processed properly, they become unresolved baggage.
Unforgiveness toward others often becomes unforgiveness toward ourselves. We replay what went wrong. We judge past decisions with today’s knowledge. We carry frustration instead of extracting the lesson. The danger is not the mistake; it’s staying emotionally tied to it.
When leaders don’t release the past, it affects how they:
- make decisions
- trust people
- delegate responsibilities
- create systems
- move forward with confidence
At Here2Serve, we learned that growth requires more than correction; it involves closure. That doesn’t mean excusing poor performance or ignoring hard lessons. It means acknowledging what happened, learning from it, adjusting systems, and choosing to move forward wiser rather than heavier.
Forgiveness in this context is strategic. It is the act of releasing emotional residue so clarity can return. When unforgiveness lingers, it keeps leaders reactive. When it’s released, leadership becomes intentional again.
In 2026, rid yourself of unforgiveness, not by forgetting the past, but by refusing to let it dictate the future. Learn the lesson. Fix what needs fixing. And lead forward with clarity, not resentment.
Closing: Release What Blocks What’s Next
2026 is not asking you to be perfect; it’s asking you to be intentional. Rid yourself of thoughts that shrink you, delays that steal momentum, clutter that clouds clarity, chaos that comes from a lack of planning, and anger that weighs you down. Because what you release determines how you rise.
At Here2Serve, we are committed to doing the inner work that supports outer excellence. As we continue to serve, lead, and grow, we invite you to do the same. Clear the path. Strengthen the foundation, and step into what’s next, lighter, wiser, and ready.
